Rabbi Bassous agrees whole-heartedly endorses the content of this letter
Dear Mayor Brill-Mittler,
I am writing to thank your honor, for listening to the Jewish community's concerns regarding antisemitism and responding to those concerns by proposing a strong resolution condemning antisemitism at your March 3rd meeting.
I urge your honor to vote in favor of the proposed Resolution Condemning All Forms of Antisemitism at your meeting.
As we prepare for our joyous holiday, Purim, we are reminded that Purim is not simply a celebration but most importantly it carries a most vital message. It is the message that only when the good people of the world stand together in condemning evil can humanity have any hope in defeating injustice, hate, and the evil scourge of antisemitism.
It is when we commit ourselves as Mordecai and Esther and all the good people of their time both Jewish and Gentile alike united in their fight against evil hate and injustice that we have any hope of defeating this evil.
They did everything within their power, to defeat the forces of hate and the evil scourge of Antisemitism and as result emerged victorious.
It is this lesson, the lesson of Mordecai, Esther and Purim that conveys this important message to the world; that it is when good people of all nations who join together ,united against those that hate, it is when they call it out and condemn that hate publicly as Mordecai and Esther did ,that the first giant step is taken in denying evil it's triumph.
When antisemitism is unequivocally condemned and rejected in all its forms than this evil is denied its opportunity to hide behind the many masks of seeming respectability. It's fabricated falsehoods promoted by its deceptive and equally fabricated narratives create the misplaced virtue this evil uses as the deceptive mask to hide behind and to accomplish much of it's insidious aims. It is when good people call this evil out and clearly condemn it in all its forms as the unadulterated pure hatred it is, that we have any hope that this evil of Antisemitisim can and will be defeated, we do not dare to do less.
There are moments in everyone's life that define the person we are and the individual we have become. They are moments that reflect the life we live and whether our lives were lived well and with virtue and courage. There are moments that inform whether we lived our lives as we were destined to live by our Creator. Did our lives reflect courage, conviction, and righteousness that we would want to be remembered for or did we respond to the challenges based on political expediency and pressures and at what cost did we do so?
It is in that, in what we do, the choices we make, the truth as to where we will be that the Al-mighty will ultimately determine where we will be counted.
Will we be found worthy to be counted among the heroes who stood firm and resolute or to those less?
Will we be viewed and counted among the heroes of our past, as Mordecai and Esther, the great ones who when confronted with evil rose to the challenge and were ready to do everything within their power to condemn it, to call it out, to unmask it in all its forms and not allow it even to have anyplace in this world for its insidious designs to hide behind ?
May G-d grant that as a result of what is done and how we respond and to what extent we condemn this evil, this scourge of antisemitism we merit to be viewed and counted by the Al-mighty among those great ones, the Mordecai and Esther and the many who have gone after them, who fought to combat hate in all its forms, denying this evil it's many masks that it hides behind and uses to accomplish much of it's insidious aims.
I again urge your honor to vote in favor of the proposed Resolution Condemning All Forms of Antisemitism at your upcoming meeting.
Wishing you a joyous Purim
Sincerely,
Rabbi Eliyahu D Kaufman
Rabbi, Congregation Ohav Emeth of Highland Park